Operation TD

Turtle Dove on a fence

This is my Turtle Dove.  I presume it's the same one that visited my garden last summer.  So far, it has only visited my garden once this spring - 20th May.  I'm hoping it will come back again.

Turtle Doves are rapidly becoming harder and harder to find in East Anglia and it's still not clear why this is.  A new initiative has also started up this year called Operation Turtle Dove and aims to stop this beautiful bird from going extinct in the UK.  Please take a look at their website and consider helping in any way you can.

This year the Beds Bird Club has decided to audit all it's remaining Turtle Doves.  The Bird Club is asking all birders who see a Turtle Dove this summer to BirdTrack their records.  All these records will then feed in to the distribution map which will be updated regularly (see below):

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All the red squares are 2011 records, all the blue sqauares are 2012 records.  Can you add any more?

Kite delight

Red Kite near Southill

These things are now pretty widespread around Bedfordshire.  However there are still pricks who go out and try to poison them - take a look at the Hexton incident.  That link is particularly galling as Red Kites were becoming a wonderful feature of nearby Pegsdon Hills; one of my favourite places to go birding locally.  Both kites and Ravens were slowly getting harder to see around the hills and now we know why.  Really makes my blood boil!

Birdparty

Birdparty; Are you going?